Northeastern’s D’Amore-McKim MBA Students Report on Their Stints as Corporate Residents
Second-year MBA students at Northeastern University’s D’Amore-McKim School of Business just completed the first month of their six-month corporate residencies, which run from June through December. A few students shared about their different workplaces and how their projects are progressing during a Corporate Residency Debriefing Day on June 25. The debriefing served primarily as a learning opportunity for first-year MBA students, who are currently immersed in classroom content; these students, who will be entering their second year of graduate business education this fall, listened to testimonials that illustrated how the abstract tenets of business study translate into practical experience in the workplace.
D’Amore-McKim designed its six month corporate residency specifically for full-time MBA students who have just completed second-year coursework. The residency allows students to work as full-time, paid employee/trainee hybrids within their industry of choice. Northeastern’s far-reaching connections with numerous companies throughout the Boston area, including IBM, GE Aviation, and Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare, have made the residency program an enormous success. As a benefit, these employers have ready access to fresh industry talent; many students receive offers of full-time employment after their corporate residency ends in December. Employers note the leadership skills, self-motivation, and fierce work ethic of D’Amore-McKim’s MBA students.
Kaitlyn Hrdy was among D’Amore-McKim’s most recent crop of corporate residents who participated in the Debriefing Day. Hrdy graduated this spring with a marketing specialization and works at Eagle Investment Systems, where she focuses on product launch activities. The marketing concepts that Hrdy studied while at D’Amore-McKim have come to life at Eagle where she ensures that Eagle employees understand the high-level, big stakes significance of a product in addition to the low-level, technical details. For Hrdy, and many of her fellow Northeastern MBA graduates, D’Amore-McKim’s Corporate Residency program has been the stepping stone between an MBA education and a career in business.
